WALKING DEAD ON BROADWAY are a Metal band from Leipzig in Saxony, Germany. Formed in 2009, the band released the EP "Welcome to Corpse Wonderland" in 2012 before dropping their first full-length album, "Aeshma" this year.

I don't like to mince words or ramble about things more than I need to, so I'm going to be frank. I found "Aeshma" to be quite disappointing. While Deathcore doesn't really do anything for me in general, I could certainly appreciate a Deathcore/Deathcore-like album with some kind of depth or dynamism to it. However, that's just the problem. It is certainly very heavy aesthetically, but it just feels very empty otherwise, in a way that basically fulfills any low opinion that one might have about Deathcore as a genre.

"Illusions" start the album with a breakdown, which rather defeats the purpose of a breakdown to begin with. It also establishes a trend of what sounds (to me, at least) like the same one or two chords used in every similar passage throughout the album. Literally. Just about every breakdown sounds the same except for the drumming patterns, which vary slightly. The melody that carries the tune out towards the end isn't bad, but its not really enough to lift the song as a whole. The worst part is probably that this is one of the most memorable songs on the album, which says much more about the rest of the songs than it does this one. There are a handful of decent riffs in the faster sections, but by the third or fourth song they start to blend together. The drums are very well played, but the vocals sound overdone in more of a frothing mad kind of way than a "That's so Metal" way. "Dark Passenger" isn't too bad. It's one of the few songs with any kind of distinct atmosphere about it, and has a good bit more variation to it than the others, shifting into high gear at the 2:39 mark, just when it looks about to burn out. The piano-accompanied title track isn't bad either, and paves the way for the blistering "Sleeping Titans."

On the whole, however, "Aeshma" leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not saying every band with breakdowns should be SUFFOCATION or DYING FETUS, but I can't imagine it would kill them, or ruin their sound, if the band put some effort into writing riffs in the breakdowns worth remembering instead of just single-note chugging. There just isn't a whole lot to the songs here, and while I get that there's something to simpler songs, "Aeshma" is little more than heaviness for the sake of heaviness. I suppose it makes for okay headbanging music, but there are plenty of better albums that can inspire the same results that I would only really recommend this to Deathcore diehards, and tentatively even then.